The beach in front of the Melia Varadero Hotel on Varadero Beach, Cuba. Cuba has one of the best strands of beach in the Caribbean. Varadero Beach is lined with all-inclusive resorts that attract Canadians and Europeans.
Jack Gruber, USA TODAY

There are several well-known school/nightclubs in Havana that teach neophytes the basics of Latin dancing and they can even show experienced salseras some steps they may have missed. Pack some sophisticated clothes and a readiness to mix it up with the locals.
Jack Gruber, USA TODAY

Tourists enjoy pina coladas complete with Havana Club rum. Cuba is the birthplace of salsa, rumba, son and a host of lesser-known musical styles, so if you’re headed to Havana, be ready to dance — although drinking the original Havana Club rum is also highly recommended.
Jack Gruber USA TODAY

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Education emphasizes the three Rs, while partying relies on the three Ds: drinking, dancing and debauchery. Unlike Miami and Manhattan, only a few Caribbean cities have million-plus populations able to support scores of nightclubs. What they do have, however, is attitude. Caribbean people will party anytime, anywhere. It's in their genes. Two guys, a boom box and a bottle of rum are the foundation for an all-nighter that turns into a flash party of hundreds winin' and celebrating. Naturally, some towns have a leg up in the celebration department. Here are a few to start you down your personal road to perdition.

CANCÚN

This is the land of perpetual Spring Break and the Caribbean's undisputed capital of carnal pleasures. Like Las Vegas, Cancún was carved out of the wilderness for the express purpose of draining tourists' stress while simultaneously diminishing the contents of their wallets. It's a fair trade: for no more than what you probably frittered away on Starbucks last year you can spend a whole week baking in the sun all day and clubbing all night. By Tuesday, you will have forgotten your insufferable boss; by Friday, you will have forgotten that it's Friday. Starbucks can't do that.

Most of the clubs are in the hotel zone, on the seaward side of the lagoon. While there are dozens of venues ranging from beach bars to VIP bottle clubs, there are some "standards" you should spend at least one martini's worth of time in.

Coco Bongo combines the glitz of a Las Vegas stage show with the sweaty intensity of a rave. The multi-level club holds up to 1,800 revelers at a time. In addition to DJs, the club has live tribute shows (Queen, Madonna, Jackson 5), acrobats flying across the stage and video projectors. www.cocobongo.com.mx

The City hosts crowds up to 5,000 and has nine bars (does one bar per 555 guests meet code?). Like Coco Bongo, there are DJs and acrobats but The City turns it up a notch by flooding the dance floor with soap suds that pour forth from two enormous Dos Equis beer cans attached to the ceiling. The club's headline live acts have included Deadmau5, Ludacris and Fergie. www.thecitycancun.com

Dady'O should be one of the stops on your dance tour. With six bars and a cavernous dance floor (literally, it's modeled after a cave), the venue hosts a variety of theme nights, bikini contests and very, very loud music. http://dadyo.com/

Of course, Cancún is ground zero for the Señor Frog's franchise and it doesn't disappoint. There are glow parties (partiers squirt each other with fluorescent paint), foam parties, pajama parties — and just ordinary everyday drinking and dancing until the wee hours parties. www.senorfrogscancun.com

If you can't have blackout-caliber fun in San Juan, you're just doing it wrong. The metro area has over 2 million residents and hosts about 4 million tourists annually. Translation: There are a lot of people looking to have fun. And the city delivers with everything from sophisticated dining and music clubs to Latin-dance venues that will wear you out. Unlike many other islands, the venues in San Juan are scattered among its neighborhoods. The biggest concentrations are in the Condado hotel district and the historic Old San Juan city center. Considering this is the home base of Bacardí, there's plenty of imbibing to be done, but the true passion of San Juaneros is the second "D" — dancing. Salsa wasn't invented here — Cuba gets credit for that — but it would be hard to argue that it wasn't perfected in Puerto Rico.

Club Brava is located in the El San Juan Resort & Casino on the beach in Isla Verde, a bit east of Condado. Open Thursday through Saturday, Brava is a chic, Vegas-style club so do not pop in wearing shorts and sandals after a day on the beach. Assuming you're impressively attired, the doors open at 10 p.m.; things get cranking around midnight and the action continues until 5 a.m. There are two floors, six bars, laser lights and DJs spinning techno/hiphop/house and Latin. www.elsanjuanhotel.com

Nuyorican Cafe may be the opposite of Club Brava. While both attract loads of locals, NUYO is for serious salseras. And unlike Brava, you're not going to just stumble into NUYO, you have to seek it out. The club is located in Old San Juan at Calle San Francisco #312 — which is in an alley — and there's no sign out front, so listen for the music or ask a local to show you. The club's main room is tall, with heavy wooden beams, and attracts a wide range of music lovers. There's even a photo of Mick Jagger at the club. Latin music legends, including Eddie Palmieri, have performed at NUYO, and the club showcases rock and jazz music too. www.nuyoricancafepr.com

El Rumba is a different kind of club: it's a floating Tiki bar that cruises San Juan harbor. This isn't as hard core as the dance clubs with a mix of patrons, from kids up to the elderly, but there's music, dancing, fruity drinks and flashy lights — all on the water taking in the skyline of Old San Juan. www.facebook.com/groups/18000095068/

El Mercado de Santurce is a local food market by day, but on Thursday and Friday nights, it turns into an outdoor party. Residents come out to dance in the square, university students show up to chug beer and everyone has a good time. Located on Calle Dos Hermanos at Calle Roberts near the Art Museum.

NASSAU

The capital of the Bahamas is also the nation's party capital. If you wander west from downtown, you may run across a rake 'n' scrape band playing for locals in one of the outdoor bars, especially on Arawak Cay. However, most of the hard-core partying takes place downtown — on Paradise Island or in Cable Beach. The crowds and the mix of celebrants changes each time a new cruise ship washes in with the tide — expect clubs near George's Wharf to be packed when there's a ship in — but that's not a bad thing, right? The city has a well-developed club scene accentuated by the somewhat tamer tourist bars at the big resorts.

Club Waterloo is the grandaddy of the Nassau scene. A former mansion was converted into a club several decades ago. In its current incarnation it serves up steaming hiphop/techno/reggae DJ fare during the week and then turns up the heat with live bands on Friday and Saturday nights. There's a big dance floor, room to boogie outside around the pool, drunk tug-of-war in the sand — what are you waiting for? clubwaterloo.com

Atlantis is the family-friendly mega-resort on Paradise Island, and its signature nightclub, Aura, is more tame than Club Waterloo. The crowd is anyone who may be staying in the resort, so it's not a jammed room pulsing with hard-core reggaeton. That said, the crowd tends to be sophisticated — so dress up — and the music is a pastiche of familiar hits. atlantis.com/thingstodo/entertainment/auranightclub.aspx

Even though much of the development is still liquid concrete yet to be poured, the new Baha Mar, scheduled to open in December, is already building a buzz. The reported $3.5 billion complex will include three hotels, a huge casino and, reportedly, several hot clubs. bahamar.com/experiences/nightlife-at-baha-mar/

HAVANA

If we're to believe Barry Manilow, New York's Copacabana was the hottest spot north of Havana — which would put Cuba's capital high on the Caribbean party pyramid. Even through the decades of socialísmo spent hosting Sovietskis in cardboard clothes, Cubans never forgot how to party. Cuba is the birthplace of salsa, rumba, son and a host of lesser-known musical styles, so if you're headed to Havana, be ready to dance — although drinking the original Havana Club rum is also highly recommended. Compared to Cancún, Havana is a lot less about waking up face-down on the beach with a smile on your face and a lot more about musical appreciation. Varadero (about 80 miles east of the city) has all-inclusive resorts that are better known for straight-up partying and discos spinning reggaeton and house; Havana is where you go to shake that thang with a little sophistication. There are several well-known school/nightclubs that teach neophytes the basics of Latin dancing and they can even show experienced salseras some steps they may have missed. Pack some sophisticated clothes and a readiness to mix it up with the locals.

La Casa del Son: Your first step probably ought to be at Casa del Son in Old Havana to brush up on your moves and pick up on the local styles. The school operates in an 18th-century building with the characteristic high ceilings, plaster walls and wood accents. Once you've got your son (or rumba or cha cha cha) on you're ready to head into the night.

Salon Rosada Benny Moré (La Tropical): If Casa del Son is a structured, soft landing in the world of Havana's dance palaces, La Tropical is the crash-on-the-runway-and-burst-into-flames total immersion. The open-air nightclub is out on the edges of the city and is where ordinary Cubans go to free their bodies and minds from the friction of everyday life. La Tropical is outside the tourist zone and there likely won't be the kind of police presence you'll see in the old city. You probably should go in a group and take a local resident with you to help navigate the street life — and leave your shiny stuff in the hotel safe as a precaution. The reward for stepping outside the circumscribed tourist circuit is an in-your-face music and dance extravaganza that lasts well past the wee hours. There was even a film made about this place. Avenida 41 at Calle 46

Tropicana: Okay, this isn't wild or crazy, but as party palaces go, the Tropicana earned mythological status decades ago. Opened in 1939, this was the place to see and be seen right through until the Revolution. Afterwards, it was allowed to operate as a tourist attraction long after other notorious clubs from the pre-Castro era had been shut down. International celebrities rubbed elbows and other things with mobsters, politicians and heiresses. The scantily clad dancers were the prototypes for the "showgirls" that eventually appeared in casinos in Las Vegas and Europe. The evening performances are true spectacles, with scores of singers, dancers and musicians heating up the outdoor Salon Bajo las Estrellas. After the two-hour show you can try out some of the moves you've just seen on the clubs' dance floor. www.cabaret-tropicana.com/welcome.php?p=main&lang=en

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